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Ont. couple wins $15.5M lottery jackpot

Niagara Falls couple Stanley and Lottie Czaplicki are seen here at the OLG office in Toronto Thursday. They won $15.5 million on the Dec. 29 Lotto 649 draw. Stanley, 83, who worked 35 years at General Motors, thought he had only won $15,000. (Dave Thomas/QMI Agency)

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NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — Stanley and Lottie Czaplicki were 1,000 times off when they thought they started the new year by winning $15,500 in the lottery.

In fact, they had won $15.5-million in the Lotto 6/49 draw on Dec. 29.

The Niagara Falls couple collected their prize at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. office in Toronto Thursday.

Stanley said he went to bed thinking they had won $15,500, but was surprised when he checked the tickets at a store.

“There was a woman standing next to me at the counter, and she looked at the printout the retailer had given me and said ‘That’s not $15,000, that’s $15 million!’ I was speechless,” said the 83-year old, who spent 32 years working in automobile manufacturing plants in Ontario.

Lottie had already done the math when she picked up the local paper and noticed the headline declaring “A millionaire walking amongst us.”

“I realized when Stanley was out that we might have won a much larger amount. When he came in the door, he didn’t say anything at first, until I asked him about what happened at the store. He was speechless. He couldn’t remember anything,” Lottie said. “I was surprised that he stopped at Canadian Tire on the way home!”